


Strictly Dominant

by devovere



Category: Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ambition, Challenge Response, Class Differences, Crossover, F/M, Female Friendship, Frenemies, Game Theory, Gen, Long Live Feedback Comment Project, Multi, Oral Sex, Power Dynamics, Singapore, Threesome - F/F/M, Wealth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 19:38:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17250155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devovere/pseuds/devovere
Summary: Katrina takes her boyfriend Gabe on a surprise Christmas getaway to Singapore, because that is where her crazy-rich BFF Philippa lives. Sadly, Philippa is busy with some big wedding. More darkly psychological than deliciously smutty.





	Strictly Dominant

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LizBee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizBee/gifts).



> Warm thanks to [lodessa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lodessa/pseuds/lodessa) for letting me bounce ideas around to come up with this crossover AU approach, for being patiently encouraging as I fought through writer's block, and finally for beta-reading on a tight deadline and helping me fine-tune characterization and clarity. Any errors, of course, are my own.

“It’s the wedding of the year—the decade, probably. Unless Mother manages at last to get my sister married off to Tommy Leung.” Philippa smiled sardonically and raised her glass heavenward, as if invoking a deity’s assistance in making said match.

“Wait, isn’t your sister dating someone named ... Elliott?” Katrina delivered the line like the set-up to a joke, which confused Gabe. They had all gone dancing with Georgianna and Elliott just the night before, and the two had clearly been a couple. But Gabe said nothing as the two women now smirked at each other, clinked glasses, and burst out laughing.

Old prep school roommates were bound to have inside jokes, and it was nice to see Katrina having fun, he told himself. Her eyes sparkled with impish glee and he glimpsed the gangly teenager she would have been when she and this fine-boned Asian beauty had become lifelong friends. Twenty years on, they were both classy as hell, and he felt a moment’s feral pride at being the one male between these two elegant and powerful women tonight.

“Anyway,” Philippa resumed, turning again to Gabe. “That’s why I must abandon the two of you to fend for yourselves in the mean streets of Singapore for the next few days. Araminta’s bachelorette party starts bright and early tomorrow, and until she and Colin leave for their honeymoon Monday morning I’ll be on nonstop bridesmaid duty.”

“Even on their wedding night?” Katrina quipped.

Philippa rolled her eyes and ignored the question. “I am sorry about the timing of it all. If only you’d given me more notice I might have been able to wrangle invitations for you, at least to the wedding ceremony.”  

Gabe assured her that they wouldn’t have dreamt of crashing such an important event and were just glad she could make time for them at all during such a busy week. Being politely accommodating to busy rich people was a professional reflex for him by now.

Katrina interrupted him to say, “We leave on Tuesday; I couldn’t get seats using frequent flyer miles any day but New Year’s. I could look into changing the flight—”

“Not if I’m going to make it to work on Thursday morning,” he reminded her. “Even with the time difference it’s a long trip back to New York.”

“And junior staff have to keep the brokerage going while the old guys take another week.” Katrina sounded irritated with him, but it wasn’t his fault she’d booked this Christmas getaway on top of Philippa’s cousin’s wedding of the century.

“Working for a living is _such_ a drag, isn’t it, Gabriel?” Philippa drawled. She didn’t need to add _Or so I hear_ to make her own net worth explicit. He gave her a small smile, knowing she was testing him and not giving a fuck if she thought he measured up.

Then he caught Katrina’s appraising glance at Philippa, a look that said that _she_ , at least, gave a fuck. Then she leaned back in her chair with self-conscious poise, and he suddenly sensed that a game of some sort was afoot.

Gabe enjoyed games.

* * *

Later, Philippa declined another round, dramatically citing the mandatory excessive boozing she would face during the wedding festivities. Then she clasped Gabe’s hand warmly with both of hers—small but surprisingly strong—and kissed Katrina on both cheeks before taking her leave of them, promising to meet them for lunch on Monday.

He watched Katrina watch her go. The light in the bar was dim, but he didn’t think he was imagining the flush of her cheeks. When she turned back to him, though, her gaze was steady.

“Well,” she remarked drily. “Now we can relax and enjoy the city together.”

“It is a very nice city,” he agreed. “And we’re staying in a very nice hotel.”

“With a _very_ nice bed,” she observed, raising an eyebrow.

“Is it?” He pretended to mull over her words. “I’m not sure we’ve tested it thoroughly enough to draw any clear conclusions yet.”

“We need more data,” she agreed, and pulled him to his feet.

* * *

Sexual banter aside, Kat was the one who understood data and experimental design, with her research position in the psychology department at Columbia. What Gabe knew was strategy. He’d built a post-crash Wall Street career on it—had snagged Katrina with it, truth be told, although he always let her think their relationship had been her idea. That was important.

Kat came from money. She had told him on their first date, saying she’d learned the hard way to be up front with men about her family’s wealth. “That way I don’t have to wonder if you know, and you don’t have to find out later on and then pretend that it’s no big deal.”

“I’m in finance,” he’d said simply. “I knew. And let’s be honest; it is a big deal.” He’d chuckled, then, at the way she folded her arms defensively across her chest. “But that’s not why I’m here.”

“Of course not,” she’d replied smoothly. “You couldn’t resist the magnetic pull of my brilliant mind.”

“Actually it was your body,” he’d deadpanned. “I hope that’s okay.” And then he’d smirked.

She had laughed with genuine surprise, and he found that he liked her real laugh a lot better than the polished one he’d heard at the cocktail party where they’d met the previous week.

Gabe had ended up in her bed soon enough, but that laugh alone had told him his strategy had paid off. What Katrina Cornwell—yes, from _those_ Cornwells—wanted was a guy who knew what _he_ wanted, who didn’t try to bullshit her, and who could surprise her now and again.

* * *

That weekend, while Philippa was busy being bridesmaid to her crazy rich cousin, they took full advantage of being ordinary tourists in Singapore. They spent hours poolside, got massages, sampled a different regional cuisine for every meal, visited museums, and took in a show downtown. Gabe knew that Katrina was slumming it, by the standards of her usual circle. He also knew that vacationing this way was part of how she rationalized dating someone middle-class, with everything that meant for the complicated web of obligations and appearances that the very rich were trained to navigate from childhood.

He didn’t think she was opposed in principle to spending money on him; he certainly wasn’t. Rather, Kat’s use of reward miles and discount packages, like her disinterest in shopping expeditions when they traveled together, was about balance and respecting his means to reciprocate her gifts. His turn to plan a trip would come sometime in the next year. The brokerage was in good shape, and he could tuck away some of his bonus for, say, summer weekends in Maine. They could stay at a nice resort on the coast. She would have fun clamming; Katrina liked getting her hands dirty, especially if food was involved. Compared to most of his previous lovers, she was refreshingly low-maintenance. That was one reason they were still together, three years on.

So the money for this trip was balanced the way it should be, but he was aware that something else was off, and it centered on Philippa Georgiou.

Philippa had always figured in Katrina’s stories about her teen and college years, and he knew the two had dinner together whenever Philippa visited New York—something that had last happened a couple years back. Having now met Philippa at last, he suspected that Katrina wouldn’t have included him that last time even if he’d been in town. They had still been finding their balance. She had still been testing him out. 

The two women’s friendship meant more to Katrina than he’d realized. She was distracted, and whenever he called her on it, she changed the subject to Monday’s plans with Philippa. She checked her phone for messages when she thought he wouldn’t notice and then didn’t bother to mask the slightly wooden mien of polite affability that she tended to adopt when she was disappointed or bored.

It wasn’t just that her old friend was obviously upstaging him during a trip Kat had presented to him as a surprise Christmas getaway. He was seeing a side to Katrina that was new to him, an insecurity, a clinginess, and it was aimed at her oldest friend.

In bed on Sunday night, she finally got to the point.

“Gabe?” she murmured, playing with his chest hair.

“Hmm?” he responded, and kissed the top of her head.

“Remember that time we talked about our fantasies?” Her tone was a little too casual.

He grinned but was careful to keep it out of his voice. “Do you want to try something?”

“I was thinking about it,” she admitted.

He pulled back to look at her face and chuckled when he saw her blushing. She had the sweetest smile when she was feeling shy but daring.

“I’m not sure Singapore is the smartest place to risk public sex, babe. They arrest people for spitting on the sidewalk here.” The idea was titillating all the same, though. He let the hand on her back slide down to her ass.

“Actually, I had one of yours in mind.”

It was his turn to blush. “You know, the handcuffs thing was really just a sexy idea. Not something I’d expect either of us to go for in practice.”

“Not that one,” was all she said, but there was an undertone of transgression in the way she glanced aside.

He froze, holding his breath. There was silence between them for a long moment.

“You mean … with Philippa.” It was a revelation, not a question. He felt a blank shock more than anything, but then he could see it, the three of them tangled, spines arching, both his hands busy.

“What do you think?” she asked, like they were talking about which pizza topping to try, but still not meeting his eyes.

He opened his mouth to speak but then grunted at her touch, bold, almost invasive.

“Feels like you’re into it,” she breathed, and cupped his balls.

“But—you? Her? Is that—something you’ve done?” He was stammering. As she moved over him he couldn’t resist wrapping his fingers in her brown hair and imagining it long, black, and glossy.

She grinned up at him, said, “Sure,” and took him in her mouth.

* * *

Gabe thought Philippa looked pretty damn good for someone who claimed she was hungover and exhausted after the weekend’s revelries. She did most of the talking over lunch, regaling them with stories of excess from the bachelorette party and drama from the wedding reception. She asked if he knew some economics professor from NYU. He didn’t bother pointing out that he’d gone to more affordable schools.

Philippa looked pointedly from him to Katrina as she explained the gossip about the allegedly gold-digging econ prof, and he let that pass without comment, too. Kat had remarked over the weekend that Philippa seemed harder and more judgmental now, like something had happened to her. Gabe doubted it. He recognized that particular brand of cruel streak. It wasn’t something people learned; it was something they unmasked when they felt they could get away with it.

For now, he was content to sit back and let Katrina handle the rich-girl banter. This was her show; he was a spectator in this act, waiting in the wings for his cue, which he knew full well wouldn’t come until the three of them were somewhere private. Then, he imagined, his thumb tracing the rim of his very fine crystal tumbler, he would take full advantage of the opportunity to cut through Philippa Georgiou’s superiority and self-control. To make her come screaming, to satisfy whatever unnameable need had motivated Katrina to suggest this threesome … that was all he wanted from this dance of three egos and the desires that drove them.

Katrina was deft enough in maneuvering them back to their hotel room, on the pretense that she wanted to show Philippa some earrings she’d found and forgotten to wear to lunch. “You taught me everything I know about jade; I want your opinion.”

Her misstep, it seemed, came when Philippa made polite noises about leaving and Katrina said, “But you haven’t kissed Gabe good-bye. Or hello, for that matter.”

Philippa smiled slowly then. Without looking at him, without any acknowledgment of his presence in the room, she said to Katrina, “Ah. And you would like me to kiss your Gabe?”

Katrina’s response, holding Philippa’s gaze, was to say, “Gabe?” The pitch and rising intonation of her voice precisely echoed the way Philippa had said his name.

That was his cue. 

He stood from the armchair he’d occupied during Philippa’s impromptu masterclass on the importance of natural light for discerning the quality of finer jade and crossed the room to where the two women still stood by the window. Overlooking Marina Bay and the cityscape below, where the upright denizens of this twenty-first century city-state were still on the clock, doing their part to make the global economy tick all around them, Gabe lifted a lock of long black hair out of his way and then bent his lips almost to Philippa’s ear.

“I think the only question that matters is if you want it,” he murmured.

Philippa didn’t move. He reached for Katrina’s hand, tugging her close beside them, and placed it over Philippa’s small breast, covering both with his palm, letting his teeth just graze the neck below her ear.

Philippa sighed, deeply and ambiguously, and then stepped aside, leaving him holding the back of Katrina’s hand.

“You’re a smart boy, Gabriel Lorca,” she remarked smoothly. “I can see why Katrina brought you here to show you off.”

Katrina stiffened beside him, staring fixedly out the window.

“Too bad,” Philippa continued, “She still hasn’t figured out why nothing she has could ever truly interest me.”

She walked out without saying goodbye.

He stood, still holding Katrina’s hand in that awkward, empty gesture. He hurt for her. He had no idea how to make it better. This game had rules he had never learned.

After a time, Katrina stirred, extricating her hand from his grasp and folding her arms in front of her.

“She always does this,” she said flatly, berating herself. “Lets me think maybe I can win this time.”

“Probably because it always works,” he observed, and led her away from the view at their feet.

**Author's Note:**

> The request for this challenge fic included Malaysia as the setting, but I was a bit intimidated by writing about a place I don't know at all. I changed it to Singapore and a modern AU setting because I've at least been there ... and because the fictional world of "Crazy Rich Asians" let me play with themes of power, ambition, and life priorities that I find particularly compelling with these three characters. It doesn't hurt, of course, that the magnificent Michelle Yeoh stars in it as well as portraying Philippa Georgiou. 
> 
> I don't know if LizBee has even seen the film, and I hope she will forgive my taking these liberties with her prompt. 
> 
> In game theory -- featured in "Crazy Rich Asians" as a specialty of economics professor Rachel Chu -- a strictly dominant strategy is one that wins every time, against every other possible strategy. 
> 
> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. I invite and appreciate feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * <3 as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> [LLF Comment Builder](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/post/170952243543/now-presenting-the-llf-comment-builder-beta) may be a useful resource for some. 
> 
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> 
> If you _don’t_ want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper.” I will appreciate it but not respond.


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